Warm Welcome For Buchanan At BJU

Pat Buchanan, like Bob Jones University, is a maverick who "cares more for truth than for his own image," university President Bob Jones III told a crowd of 1,700 who had gathered for the presidential candidate's campaign kickoff.

"We make no apology for being outside of the mainstream," Jones said Monday at the on-campus gathering.

Buchanan made the campaign stop in the hopes of reviving his low-budget presidential campaign. Jones offered an endorsement of sorts for Buchanan, who he described as a "lonely man," offering an important message.

Later, in an interview with The Associated Press, Jones said he wouldn't endorse Buchanan as a candidate. "I endorse so much of what he says. I endorse his courage," Jones said. "I endorse him as a friend."

The Reform Party nominee said he didn't want to lecture the school, which is known for fundamentalist religious views, anti-Catholic rhetoric and an interracial dating ban that was in effect until this year.

His stop at the school brings instant, free visibility to Buchanan's presidential effort after it got a $12.6 million shot in the arm with federal campaign money last week.

The school's auditorium turned into a cheering section for Buchanan's message that ranged from getting the United Nations out of the United States, strengthening borders, imposing term limits on federal judges, stopping legalization of same-sex unions and even restoring a Washington's Birthday holiday.

"We want the United Nations out of the United States by year's end," Buchanan said. "If you have trouble leaving, we'll send up 10,000 Marines to help you pack."

He said Hollywood and film producers were a source of moral decay in the nation.

"Instead of breaking up Microsoft, why don't we break up Disney?" he said. If elected, he said he'd also shut down the National Endowment for the Arts.

Buchanan, a Catholic, said he came to the school to "stand with my friends" and talk about the social and moral and cultural issues that have been absent from the presidential race. "These folks were very good to me and friendly to me in two campaigns and I think they've been beat up and piled on unfairly and unjustly by the national media."

Buchanan defended the university, which was at the center of GOP wrangling earlier this year when Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush drew fire for not criticizing some of the school's policies during his appearance there in February.

Democrats said they relish Buchanan's Bob Jones visit because the former Republican presidential hopeful is returning to a place that meant trouble for Bush six months ago.

"Apparently, Buchanan didn't learn from Junior's mistake," South Carolina Democratic Party chairman Dick Harpootlian said.

Jones said Buchanan's visit showed "the press had it all wrong when they vilified George Bush for coming here."

Jones said he would be supporting ush in the election because he's "enough of a realist to know that a vote for anyone else is a vote for Gore."

By JIM DAVENPORT